Sunday, March 8, 2015

Week ending 8 March 2015

Now that I'm just homeschooling two - and teens at that - our typical week looks very different from when I was homeschooling four, especially when they were younger. The days of everyone crowded around the table working together or all piled up on the couch while I read aloud have long passed. I'm certainly no longer involved in every detail of what they are learning.

For large chunks of the day Mr 17 and Miss 14 are at individual desks (or on beds) with either books or computers.

Physics

Maths

Latin - simple sentence translation review.

Art History. This week was Byzantine and early Christian art - plenty of mosaics and icon paintings!

Pleasure reading

Occasionally they like to work together, mostly when they are completing map work for geography (the only subject they both do) since cooperation lets them finish the work more quickly.

We've also been using online games to drill some geography facts. Trying to outdo each other in the high score department adds a little extra excitement to the process. Current favourite include Seterra, Lizard Point and Sheppard Software.

If they are taking a break from studies at the same time they can normally be found at the table playing a board game together. Ticket to Ride is still the favourite!

While Mr 17 does all his work himself (his choice) I am still involved in some of Miss 14's. Right now I quiz her on her Latin vocabulary most days. She could do this herself online but prefers the old fashioned approach to flashcards

I also join her for her literature MOOCs, because I'm interested and would probably be doing them myself even if she wasn't. This week we started FutureLearn's Much Ado About Nothing: in Performance. So of course we are reading the play aloud from our favourite Oxford School Shakespeare series and then watching the online videos together.

This week's lectures focused on the staging of the play.

The fact that they are mainly self-sufficient means I have more time for my own personal interests than I did when they were younger.

Some of the books I read this week.

Apart from working independently from me and each other the other major change is that we are out of the house a lot more.

Sport is a big part of our week in a way it was not formerly. Mr
17 and Miss 14 are far and away the sportiest of my four. If we
required P.E. credits on our transcripts they would be easy to come by!
He plays cricket and trains twice each week with a game all day on
Saturday. This week he took part in an extra game for six hours on
Sunday. His teams won both games - a pleasant surprise since they've only won one other game all year. She is a keen competitive trampolinist and is currently training
three times per week, but that will probably soon increase. She had her first competition of the year on
Sunday, her first in the 15/16 age division. It wasn't her best
competition ever - she kept crashing during warm-up and we were both
nervous that she would crash during competition itself. However her routines
came together well enough when it counted, and she won her division and
qualified for Nationals in October. There was also a team competition at
this event which her club won - a nice bonus.

In case you are wondering that's a reflection of the camera showing up in the bottom of the trophy.

As my kids have gotten older they've become more invested in outside interests and passions. I see these as a vital part of their home education experience even though they don't happen at home and aren't education in the narrow schooly sense of the word. For Mr 17 the interest is Scouting. This week he volunteered as usual with the Cub section one evening. He seems to enjoy working with this age group (8-10 year olds). He also attended his own section meeting where he completed some more requirements for his Queen Scout award - so, so close to being finished now. He also attended a regional council meeting and ended up being elected secretary, a great opportunity for him to develop skills such as accurate minute taking. He is also Quartermaster for one of the local Scouting groups but didn't do any work related to that role this week.

We see him in this uniform a lot!

Miss 14's main passion is birding. Thankfully it is an interest I have genuinely developed alongside her since, until she can drive, I need to go with her to most birding activities. On Monday we attended an evening lecture by an international expert on Bar-tailed Godwits. He also happened to be one of the tutors at the field course she attended in January so they were able to have a brief catch-up. On Friday we assisted with a bird survey at a volunteer- run reserve. In between Miss 14 began work on next month's newsletter for our local birding group.

Compiling the recent sightings for our newsletter was one of this week's tasks.

Both
Miss 14 and Mr 17 have part time jobs, which provide many great lessons
- time management, money management, learning to get along with a
variety of different people and negotiating new roles. This week he did
16 hours in the bakery while she did a much more manageable four hours
coaching at the gym.

All dressed up and ready to head to work.

All in all a busy and productive week. But very different from how our homeschooling weeks looked when they were younger.Linking up with Kris's Weekly-Wrap Up.

1 comment:

I completely understand about how it looks different. My girls are also doing a lot more independently and there are things that I am not doing with them and don't really know exactly what they are learning. I think that is healthy at this point.

Allie, who is 15, wishes she had a real part-time job like Miss 14! She walks dogs and babysits, but so far we have not been able to find time for much more than that!